If you have any contacts in the Western Suburbs of Chicago, we need a space we can lease with circa. 40,000 square feet of floor space (leadership hasn't said, but I think they are prepared to handle the build-out - meeting room, offices, classrooms, etc.) and parking for circa. 300 cars (our monthly workshops are SRO lately!).

CIREA costs about $160 annually, but allows for a handful of sub-workshops as well so it is worth in the cost in my opinion.

I also signed up for a local first time home buyers workshop, so hopefully that helps a ton.In Buffalo there are tons of deals like the one I found, I found several others in that price range, so when the time is right I know I'll be able to find something.

@Dion DePaoli, I know exactly what you mean by those "workshop" guys.  

I have been attending real estate workshops for two years trying to get out of the rat race. 

Anyone know of any workshops/conferences in the Houston, TX area for first time home buyers?

I have been to several "workshops", seminars, and I'm also a member of the local REIA so I do have quite a bit of working knowledge.

North Texas Association or Real Estate Investors http://ntarei.com/ This group has a general meeting once a month and hosts a lots of workshops for a small fee.

We are thinking of holding an on-location workshop where the investor/GC will walk you through the process of how we acquired the property, the challenges involved, the scope of work planned to maximize the value of the resale, ie., addition, floorplan restructure, etc.

That was an on-line scam -- I mean workshop -- and was discounted at $49.